Verjine
Svazlian

Armenian Historian

Verjine Svazlian,
ethnographer and folklorist, was born in 1934 in Alexandria (Egypt) in the
family of the writer and public man Karnik Svazlian, himself an eye-witness
survivor of Turkish tyranny.

In 1947, she has been repatriated
with her parents to the Motherland, Armenia.

In 1956, she has graduated with
honours from the Department of the Armenian Language and Literature of the Kh.
Abovian State Pedagogical Institute.

Beginning from the nineteen
fifties, she has, on her own initiative, started to write down and thereby saved
from a total loss the various folklore creations communicated by the repatriates
forcibly deported from Western Armenia, Cilicia and the Armenian-inhabited
provinces of Anatolia, as well as the narrated memoirs of the eye-witness
survivors of the Genocide.

Starting from 1958, she has worked
at the M. Abeghian Institute of Literature of the Academy of Sciences of
Armenia. During her post-graduate studies, she has been a M. Abeghian
grant-aided student.

From 1961, she has worked at the
Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the National Academy of Sciences of
Armenia and, from 1996, also at the Museum-Institute of the Armenian Genocide of
the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia.

She has maintained her Candidate
thesis in 1965 and her thesis for a Doctor's Degree in 1995.

She has participated in republican
and international conferences, discoursing upon folklore, ethnography and the
Armenian Action.

She is also the author of a number
of scientific papers published in the Motherland and in the Diaspora.

"Moussa
Dagh."Armenian Ethnography and Folklore. Vol. 16, Publishing
House of the AS ASSR, Yerevan, 1984 (in Armenian, with English &
Russian Summaries)

[In 1985 was awarded
the "Honour Certificate" of the Presidium of the Academy of
Sciences of Armenia and the Gold Medal "Honorary Denizen of Moussa
Dagh" granted by the Moussa Dagh Compatriotic Union].

"Cilicia.
The Oral Tradition of the Western Armenians." "Gitutiun" Publishing House of
the NAS RA, Yerevan, 1994 (in Armenian, with English, French & Russian
Summaries).

"Genocide.
The Oral Evidences of the Western Armenians." "Gitutiun" Publishing House of
the NAS RA, Yerevan, 1995 (in Armenian, with English, French & Russian
Summaries).

[On April 24, 2000, on
the occasion of the 85th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, was
awarded the "Diploma of Honour" of the Presidium of the NAS RA
"for the scientific investigations in the field of the historical study
of the Armenian Case, the Armenian Genocide and the Armenian Diaspora,
which are important contributions to Armenian historiography."
On May 2, 2002 was awarded the Diasporan literary-philological prize
"Haykashen Ouzounian" of the Tekeyan Cultural Union for over 50
years of Armenological investigations and especially for the book "The
Armenian Genocide. Testimonies of the Eye-Witness Survivors."].

Has compiled and edited: Grikor
Gyozalian. "The
Ethnography of Moussa Dagh." "Gitutiun" Publishing House of the NAS RA.
Yerevan, 2001 (in Armenian, with English Introduction).

[On the 24th of April,
2003, the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic
of Armenia and the International Committee "The Veritables for the
Armenians" granted her the "Fridtjof Nansen's Memorial Medal for
the scientific and public activity directed toward the condemnation of
the Armenian Genocide and toward the establishment of philanthropic
principles."].

The Oral Tradition
of the Western Armenians.
The Armenian Genocide - 1915

The oral tradition of
the Western Armenians is part of the oral culture of the Armenian people. Its
original peculiarities are conditioned by the public and political circumstances
connected with the life of the Western Armenians.

In the course of a number of years,
the following folklore collections have been written down word by word, fragment
by fragment and published.

I wish to express my deep gratitude
to those Western Armenian narrators, who, with their already fading dialects
have communicated me and saved from a total loss the remains of the spiritual
culture of this part of the Armenian people, so I offer you what is yours,
Armenian people.

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(1838 - 1908)

Sarkis
Haykouni (Life and Work)

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Armenian
Folk Tales.

"Artsakh-Outik" "Taron-Turuberan"
"Van-Vaspurakan"

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Moussa
Dagh

(Summary)

Moussa Ler (Moussa Dagh) is the
name of a locality on the northeastern shore of the Mediterranean, populated
since of long with an ethnographic group of Armenians.

In time of the 1915 wholesale
massacre of the Armenians they rose to worldwide renown for their forty-day-long
heroic battle, after which they commenced a nomadic life in different countries.
In 1946 the greater part of those wanderers was repatriated to Soviet Armenia.

Repatriation of the
Moussadaghians to the Armenian SSR

The present edition is the first attempt to sample nearly all the traditional
folklore genres of the natives of Moussa Ler.

The collection comprises 1319 texts
of different productions, characteristic of the repertory of Moussa Ler natives
living in Armenia.

The folklore data are presented in
three large sections:

Epic Folk Art.

Tales

Fables

Anecdotes

Legends

Lyric Folk Art.

Ditties

Ritual songs

Patriotic songs

Soldiers' songs

Nomadic songs

Everyday songs

Formulas.

Sayings

Proverbs

Riddles

Blessings

Imprecations

Oaths

Idiomatic Expressions

The data were recorded with due
account of their dialectological principles, each provided with parallel entries
of equivalents in literary Armenian.

The edition includes a vocabulary
explaining the difficult words and expressions, the biography of narrators,
comments marked with archival references showing motif parallels in world tales,
tables, a number of notations of songs based on their execution, as well as a
map portraying the repatriation of the natives of Moussa Ler to Soviet Armenia.

The introduction enlists general
information on Moussa Ler and its former inhabitants and a number of results of
special studies of the folklore repertory of this group.

The folklore data were recorded in
two periods: 1955-1960 and 1972-1978. A collection of statistical and analytical
observations made in time of two expeditions enabled us to draw a number of
synchronous and diachronous conclusions. Thus, tendencies of qualitative changes
on the synchronous plane make themselves felt in the quantitative reduction of
the traditional repertory, apparently due to generation shift: the departure of
the senior generation of narrators brings about a gradual disappearance of oral
folktales.

Making use of the Armenian system
of documentation (ASL) worked out by Isidor Levin, a doctor of philological
sciences, as well as the research methods he has suggested, we have succeeded in
a number of cases in objectifying the changes in the folklore of the natives of
Moussa Ler, accountable in terms of modified historical and geographical
setting, the growth of social and cultural standard and the shaping of a new
thinking and psychology.

The research method and the
references drawn upon in the writing may prove of interest not only to the
folklorists but also to the historians of Armenian culture, dialectologists and
sociologists.

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Cilicia.
The Oral Tradition of the Western Armenians

(Summary)

The medieval Armenian State Cilicia
was situated on the South East of Minor Asia and North East Coast of the
Mediterranean Sea.

During three centuries of its
glorious sovereign state (XI-XIV centuries) the Armenian Cilicia was famous for
its developed political, economic system. Here flourished the trades,
educational centres of science and culture.

Cilicia and the
Western Armenian Regions
(End of the 19th - Beginning of the 20th Century)

After the Genocide of the Armenians
in 1915, the deportation from Cilicia (1921) and the disaster of Ismir (1922),
considerable part of the Western Armenians was exterminated. The rest, who
escaped and survived by miracle, remained homeless and unmotherland. So they
were obliged to settle in different countries of the world, creating the
Armenian Diaspora as a historical phenomenon.

After long wanderings, most of them
repatriated to Soviet Armenia and settled in new localities, which symbolized
their past cradle.

From the representatives of the
eldest generation which suffered, eye-witnesses of the historical events we
mentioned above, by our own initiative, since 1950s, we inscribed numerous
memories, historical folk tales about historical events and features, as well as
songs and epical songs of various genres, which in artistic forms reproduced the
past flourished life, customs and mode of life of the Cilician Armenians, who
suffered because of the forced massacre and deportation organized by the Turks,
the honest and fair struggle, which the Cilician Armenians held against that
violence from the beginning of the insurrection of Zeytoun 1862 until the heroic
resistance of Moussa Dagh, Yedessia (1915), and also Adana, Aintab, Hadjn and
other places in 1920, until the forced deportation of the Cilician Armenians and
Anatolia, their wanderings and repatriation, their adaptation to the new mode of
life of their Homeland, including the actual events of nowadays and the
confirmation of the new Sovereign Armenian State.

That period is saturated with rapid
social-historical events, and this collection includes memorized folklore
materials of this period, which until now by different causes was not inscribed
and studied.

Costumes of
Cilician Women

While inscribing the materials of
the collection we tried to maintain the irreproachable oral speech of the
narrator. The dialect materials are presented as it is accepted in the
scientific transcription, having in particular the dialect of Cilicia (Zeytoun,
Hadjn, Marash, Moussa-Dagh, Kessab, Beylan, Deurtyol, Sis, Tarsone, Adana,
Mersine) and also the oral folklore of other Western Armenian regions (Yedessia,
Tikranakert, Bitlis, Erzroum, Van, Harput, Keghy, Balou, Malatya, Kesarya,
Sebastya, Shabin-Karahisar, Adabazar, Eskishehir, Boursa, Biledjik, Nicomidie,
Rodosto, Tchanakgale, Smyrne, Constantinople) in Armenian and Turkish languages
accompanied by our literary Armenian translations.

The materials of the collection are
mainly inscribed in Armenia, partial in the USA and Greece and are grouped and
systematized in four parts.

Epical Folklore.

Tales

Fables and recitals

Religious legends

Superstitious narrations

Toponimical legends

Historical narrations

Amusing narrations

Poetic Folklore.

Lullabies

Children's songs

Songs and couplets of love

Songs and couplets of
exile

Ritual songs
1. Marriage
2. Holiday

Custom and amusing songs

Historical and epic songs
1. Patriotic and heroic
2. Military muster and prisoners
3. Deportation and massacre
4. About mothers who lost their children, orphans and orphanages
5. About nostalgia for their Motherland and repatriation

Phraseological Folklore.

Proverb-sayings

Edifications

Maledictions

Benedictions-wishes

Prayers

Memories About the Armenian
Genocide.

The collection has a vocabulary of
foreign words and dialects, footnotes, a map, songs accompanied by musical
notes, historical-ethnographical photos.

The introduction of the collection
includes information about the historical past of the Cilician Armenians, their
political, economic, spiritual and cultural life.

In applying the least scientific
modern methods of quantitative analyze in folklore science, we studied the
sex-age relation of 230 narrators, comparing with their 1461 unit information in
various genres materials.

The folklore materials and memories
of this of this folk-historical collection, for its originality and historical
value, shall be the witness for the objective illumination of the Armenian
Genocide and other historical events by a simple, popular language, and so they
appears as historical reliable documents.

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Genocide. The Oral Evidences of the Western Armenians

(Summary)

Recently, the interest around the
Armenian nation's fatal Genocide increased, as far as the Turkish historiography
obstinate to distort the reliable historical events. In a sense, except of the
official published documents, the folk songs and memoirs, created directly under
the impression of the events mentioned above, have an exceptional historico-factual
importance and were not inscribed and researched in Armenia until now.

After the Genocide of the Armenians
in 1915, the deportation from Cilicia (1921) and the disaster of Ismir (1922),
considerable part of the Western Armenians was exterminated. The rest, which
escaped and survived by miracle, remained homeless and unmotherland. So they
were obliged to settle in different countries of the world, creating the
Armenian Diaspora as a historical phenomenon.

After long wanderings, most of them
repatriated to Soviet Armenia and settled in new localities which symbolized
their past cradle.

This collection includes memoirs
and folk songs of historical character (in Armenian and in Turkish languages),
which, since 1950s, we have inscribed in Armenia and partly in the Diaspora,
created by the Armenians deported from Western Armenia, Cilicia and the
localities of Anatolia, who reproduced the eldest generation of eye-witness
repatriates, salved by miracle from the Genocide.

These factual documents really
reflect the military muster, the mass exile, massacre and slaughter organized by
the Turks, also the heroic self-defense and the overwhelms of Van, Sasoun, Moush,
Shatakh, Shapin-Garahisar, Zeytoun, Moussa Dagh, Ourfa and other places, later
in 1920-1921 Marash, Ayntap, Hadjn.

In spite the movements were crushed
by the Turkish autocracy, the fearless heroes, who struggled for their
elementary rights and physical resistance of their nation, left a bright sign in
the history of the national liberation struggle.

In the process of noting the
materials we tried to be faithful to the oral speech of 230 narrators, to the
specific dialogue of their languages. Some interpretations are given by special
footnotes.

Besides the folk materials, the
collection includes a scientific introduction, where parallel to the historical
events we researched the inscribed folk materials, the original texts and notes
of which are kept in the fund of the folklore archive Verjine Svazlian at the
Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of Armenia's National Academy of
Sciences.

The collection has a vocabulary of
foreign words and dialects, footnotes, a map, songs accompanied by musical
notes, historical photos, information about the narrators and their photographs.

In the course of tens of years
period word by word, fragment by fragment the inscribed and presented oral
materials, because of their original and valuable historical cognition remain
reliable, factological and documental evidences, reflecting by a simple folk
language the events of the Armenian Genocide.

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The Armenian Genocide
in the Memoirs
and
Turkish-Language Songs
of the Eye-Witness Survivors

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The
Folklore of the
Armenians of Constantinople

After the fall of Constantinople in
1453, Fatih Sultan Mohamet II proclaimed it capital of the Ottoman State and
renamed it Istanbul.

The monarch transferred there the
families of the Armenian masters from the inner provinces of the Turkish Empire,
who not only increased the number of the flourishing Armenian community, but
also imparted beauty and radiance to the newly-established capital with the
ability of their mind and their arm.

Under the immediate supervision of
Sultan Fatih Mohamet, the Armenians found a true atmosphere of activity and,
owing to the religious freedom afforded, founded in the new capital the Armenian
Patriarchate of Turkey in 1461, to which the Sultan granted certain ecclesiastic
and communal rights.

There were at that time about one
thousand Armenian families in Istanbul. During the subsequent years the number
of Armenians in Istanbul grew gradually as a result of the migration of people
from the provinces in search of work. The Armenian jewellers, silk-spinners and
other craftsman enjoyed a great reputation. The wealthy class was composed of
money-changers, money-lenders and tradesmen, who, owing to their capital and
enterprising efficiency, had gained influential positions, had established ties
with the Sultan's Court and played an active role in the economic and political
life of Turkey.

The important state functions of
the Sultan's Court had been trusted to the Armenians, who conducted them
devotedly and by inheritance, from generation to generation. Thus, Harutyun
Amira Bezjian was the Sultan's counsellor, the Duzians governed the jeweller's
art and the mintage, the Dadians were leaders in gunpowder manufacture, the
Balians were distinguished in architecture, etc. The Armenians have had also
ministers of the Post, the Telegraph, the Public Constructions, Agriculture,
Foreign Affairs in the government of the Ottoman Empire and subsequently,
deputies of the Ottoman Parliament as well.

The commission merchants were also
among the wealthy class and greatly fostered the developing trade between Turkey
and Europe.

The Armenian community in Istanbul
included also famous intellectuals, artists and architects, who had an active
participation not only in the Palace, but also in the public and political
progress of the country.

During the 539 years of its
existence, the Armenian Patriarchate of Turkey, with its various religious and
cultural activities, has lead the Armenian community along the path of
civilization, constantly supporting the social and ideological ascent of the
country. It has also greatly contributed to the unification of the Armenian
people, to the preservation of its national identity, language and culture. At
present, the Armenian Patriarch in Turkey is His Beatitude Archbishop Mesrob M.
Mutafian.

Now the Armenians have 42 churches
and 19 schools in Istanbul and the provinces. The schools have their alumni
associations, which keep alive the cultural life of the Armenian community by
their various artistic enterprises and publications.

Besides the daily newspapers
"Zhamanak" and "Nor Marmara," the weekly journals "Akos" and "Lraber"
(publication of the Patriarchate) are published in Armenian and Turkish
languages, the yearbook "Shoghakat," the monthly journal "Soorp Prkitch," the
reviews "Hopina" and "Poondj" are published in Armenian.

At the present time, about 60
thousand Armenians reside in Istanbul and 5 thousand live in the provinces. They
are engaged in trade and handicrafts. The Armenian community has devoted
clergymen, teachers, physicians, writers and artists, who have been specialized
in Turkey and in foreign countries.

It is impossible to conceive the
spiritual character of the Armenian community of Turkey without studying its
oral tradition, which has been transmitted from generation to generation.

The various materials of the oral
tradition (1516 units) we have written down from the representatives of the
Armenian community of Turkey (120 narrators) have been summarized in the present
collection under the following headings.

Baptismal, nuptial
and funeral folk customs of the past and the present are described in these
ethnographic materials.

The volume includes also a glossary
of foreign words and dialects, foot-notes, songs accompanied by musical notes,
photographs of narrators and commentaries.

The present collection of oral folk
tradition gives the reader an idea about the past mode of life, demeanour,
customs, emotions and experiences of the Armenian community of Turkey, as well
as about the present day joint, peaceful and creative life of the Armenian and
Turkish peoples in the Republic of Turkey.

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The
Armenian Genocide. Testimonies of the
Eye-Witness Survivors

Dedicated
to the 85th Anniversary
of the Armenian Genocide

D E D I C A T I
O N

This volume is published with the
patronage ofthe Catholicosate of the Eminent House of Cilicia.
We express our deep gratitude to
His HolinessARAM I Catholicos
of the Eminent House of Cilicia
for, publishing with his patriarchal enlightened patronage
the historical memory of the Armenian nation,
as an evidence of the past and a warning for the future,
it is presented to the world and to the impartial judgement of mankind.

During the past years, interest
toward the fatal events of the Armenian Genocide has grown, especially when
Turkish historiographers obstinately tried to distort the true historical facts.
In this respect, the popular songs and memoirs created under the immediate
impression of the said events are, besides the official published documents, of
an exceptional historico-cognitive value; in spite of their importance, however,
they had almost not been recorded and studied until recently.

As a result of the Genocide of the
Armenians in 1915, the deportation from Cilicia (1921) and the disaster of Izmir
(1922), more than 1.5 million Western Armenians were exterminated, while those
who were rescued and miraculously survived, remained homeless and deprived of
their motherland; they were compelled to migrate and to settle in different
countries of the world, creating the Armenian Diaspora as a historical reality.

The Armenian
Genocide in the Ottoman Empire (1915-1922)

After long wanderings, many of the
eye-witness survivors of these tragic events have been repatriated to the
Motherland from Constantinople, the Balkan countries, Greece, France, Syria,
Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt and settled in newly-built localities symbolizing their
former native cradles.

The present collection includes
oral memoirs and folk songs of historical character (in Armenian and Turkish
languages), which we have inscribed since 1956 in Armenia and partly in the
Diaspora; they have been narrated and sung by Armenian repatriates,
representatives of the senior generation of eye-witnesses, miraculously saved
from the Genocide and deported from 70 localities of Western Armenia, Cilicia
and Anatolia.

These factual documents truthfully
depict the mobilization, the arm-collection, the mass exile, massacre and
slaughter organized by the government of Young Turks, as well as the heroic
self-defensive battles of Van, Sassoun, Moush, Shatakh, Shapin-Garahissar,
Moussa Dagh, Urfa and later (1920-1921), of Ayntap and Hadjn.

Although the Turkish autocracy
cruelly suppressed the heroic resistance started in various localities,
nevertheless, the fearless Armenian heroes, who fought for their elementary
human rights and for the physical survival of their nation, recorded brilliant
pages in the history of the national-liberation struggle of the Armenian people.

In the process of recording the
materials, we have tried to be faithful to the oral speech of our 550 narrators
and to the specific dialect of their language. Some interpretations are given by
special footnotes.

Besides the memoirs and songs, the
collection includes also a historico-scientific introduction, where, along with
the historical events, we have analysed the recorded oral folk materials (600
units), the original texts and notes of which are kept as a special fund (Verjine
Svazlian Fund) in the archives of the Museum-Institute of the Armenian Genocide
of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia.

The collection is provided with a
glossary of foreign words and dialects, footnotes, historical map, songs
accompanied by musical notes, information about the narrators and their
photographs.

The present oral testimonies, which
have been inscribed (written down, audio- and video-recorded) word by word,
fragment by fragment in the course of 45 years, are, by reason of their
originality and historical value, unique factological and documental evidences
reflecting, in a simple folk language, the tragic events of the Armenian
Genocide.

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Grikor
Gyozalian

The Ethnography of Moussa Dagh

From the Editor

I made the acquaintance of the
repatriate intellectual Grikor Gyozalian (Geghuni), a native of Moussa Dagh,
specialized in engineering in Paris, in 1976, at the time when I was preparing
my folklore collection "Moussa Dagh" for publication (V. Svazlian.Moussa Dagh.
"Armenian Ethnography and Folklore." Vol. 16, Publishing House AS ASSR,
Yerevan, 1984). Grikor Gyozalian became for me not only a talented narrator from
whom I have written down folklore materials already doomed to oblivion, but
also, with his compassionate behaviour and patriotic fervency, he assisted in
the dialectal corrections of the original texts of my collection, for which I am
grateful to him.

Formerly, Grikor Gyozalian had
assisted also the academicians Ararat Gharibian and Gevork Jahukian in studying
the difficult dialect of Moussa Dagh.

Appreciating Grikor Gyozalian's
rich experience and knowledge of his native land, I requested him to compile the
ethnography of Moussa Dagh, putting at his disposal the "Ethnographic
Questionnaire" of the famous ethnographer Stepan Lissitsian, in order that,
using these scientific principles as a starting point, he might present the life
and customs of this section of the Armenian nation, the lack of which is notable
up to the present day.

Inspired with the dream of his
native land and endowed with poetic style, Grikor Gyozalian realized this work
with love and enthusiasm; however, it was left unpublished up till now for
various reasons at the archives of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography
of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia.

The present work summarizes the
period extending till the heroic battle organized by the denizens of Moussa Dagh
during the days of the Armenian Genocide in 1915. Based upon the general
characteristic of the seven villages of Moussa Dagh, it depicts the geographical
environment they have lived in, the old and new historical events, the popular
rites and beliefs embracing all the spheres of the human life from birth till
future life.

The section "Material Life"
describes the villages, the churches, nearly all the variants of the external
aspect and internal furnishing of houses and adjacent constructions, of
costumes, of adornments, of food and beverages.

Of special interest are the
materials included in the section "Social Relations" of the inhabitants of
Moussa Dagh dealing with the customary right and various forms of thinking of
the generation, the family, the class layers, the beliefs, the holidays and the
rites.

Grikor Gyozalian has succeeded, as
an eye-witness survivor, in presenting what he has seen and heard in the past in
a popular language and in an expressive and vivid style, imparting to the
material a truthful and trustworthy character.

The work is supplied with drawings
made by the author himself, which render this valuable ethnographic ancient
material more obvious and more comprehensible.

Grikor Gyozalian's present work is
a colourful panorama saved from a total loss of the former life, customs and
outlook of the heroic denizens of Moussa Dagh, which, we are sure, will occupy
its befitting place in the century-old history of the Armenian people.

Verjine Svazlian
Doctor of Philological Sciences

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The
Armenian Genocide
and
Historical Memory

Translated from the Armenian by TIGRAN TSULIKIAN

Dedicated
to the 90th Anniversary
of the Armenian Genocide

C O N T E N T S

The typological
peculiarities of the testimonies of eyewitness survivors

The course of the Armenian Genocide according to the testimonies of the
eyewitness survivors